Abstract
TRACES OF FAMOUS HISTORICAL PERSONS ON CANVAS
A review of the contents of the Two-Dimensional Art Workshop and the Three-Dimensional Art Workshop courses in the Fine Arts High Schools suggested that the same were similar to the contents of the basic design courses lectured in faculties and departments accepting students via talent exams in the field of visual arts. Furthermore, the fact that the translation of the said content into the learning process demonstrates similarities in both institutions, affects the interest of undergraduate students in the basic design courses. This problem may be resolved by means of adopting new approaches such as the visual culture in the learning-teaching processes in accordance with the purpose of the course. For the children and the youth, who maintain a much closer relationship with technology compared to adults, visual culture is a natural part of their lives. In this perspective, the views of students with regard to a fine arts education based on the life experiences of the students is important. Therefore the basic aim of this study hereby is to ascertain the views of the undergraduate students of the Fine Arts Education, Art Teaching Program of the Faculty of Education of Anadolu University, with regard to the portrait work as set up with visual culture images in the scope of the Basic Design I course. The study was performed as based on art based research design, one of the qualitative research methods, during the autumn semester of the 2012-2013 educational year. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews with ten students taking Basic Design I course, and that the findings therefrom were analyzed and interpreted via descriptive analysis. As a result of the study, the findings were grouped under three themes of “visual culture in the process of design,” “implementation process,” and “problems within the implementation process.” Expressing their views the students underlined that the visual culture work increased their attention in the course, that they had successfully completed their practice, that they had acquired information about the person of interest and thus raised their awareness with regard thereto, that despite the technical problems they were eager to complete the practice due to the fact that the practice had been interesting, and that they were positively influenced by the feedback of the viewers.
Keywords
Basic design, visual culture, famous historical persons , fine arts education.
